


Guardian Angel

by NevaRYadL



Series: Nev's Doom Works [6]
Category: Doom (Video Games)
Genre: ((also going to save Olivia btw because why the fuck not)), ... sort of, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Doom Eternal Spoilers, Other, Slow Build, What if Samuel was the AI and Vega was the scientist, demon killing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:15:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23951404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NevaRYadL/pseuds/NevaRYadL
Summary: What if... Vega was a Maykr looking over the Doom Slayer? What if Samuel was the corrupt Father seeking to return to his lofty throne, but stuck in AI coding? What if... things were a little bit different?
Relationships: Doom Slayer | Doomguy/VEGA
Series: Nev's Doom Works [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1787845
Comments: 26
Kudos: 180





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: Canon typical violence, implied past Vega/Doom Slayer, blood and gore, demon killing, role reversal au
> 
> An idea if Vega was himself but a rebellious Maykr and Samuel was himself but a corrupted AI stemming from the Father

_“We must move quickly, there are those that would seek to stop this.”_

_He could hear the Slayer’s heavy steps behind him, trailing after him as they entered the great machine. Once so sure, the stomping strides of a powerful and assured warrior… now so light in hesitation. Which was to be completely understood. He had made sure that the Slayer understood the gravity of the situation, the weight of his ‘blessing’ beforehand, that the Slayer understood that this… this was probably going to be their last meeting._

_As much as it pained him that he would never see the Slayer again after all of this happened… sometimes things needed to be sacrificed in the name of the greater good. If the Sentinels could be empowered by a powered up Slayer and stop the formation of Argent energy, if they could pluck the Maykrs from their lofty thrones… then it would be worth it. As much as the thought of never seeing the Slayer again sent sharp and hot agony stabbing through his heart._

_“I offer you a gift.”_

_The machine was primed and the platform awaited for the Slayer to rest upon. The Slayer hesitated before it, eyeing it suspiciously. He stepped back and offered his hand to the Slayer, offering comfort. The Slayer took it readily, knowing and trusting him to provide, wrapping armored human fingers around his metallic ones, following as he guided the man to the platform._

_“Please, take it, may it keep you safe… keep you alive on your journey.”_

_He guided the Slayer to the platform. Reluctantly the two parted, the Slayer’s fingers lingering on his, gloved hands dragging along his metallic ones to draw out the last touch. Until they parted and they would never touch again. And the Slayer was laying in the pod. He was not sure if he would see the Slayer again and a fresh wave of agony gripped his heart._

_“... And now, I can only pray for you,” Vega said before starting up the machine, hoping that his personal modifications could prevent as much pain and suffering as possible before the lights blinded him._

* * *

The demonic invasion was well underway.

Vega picked up a shotgun and blew the face off an imp as it tried to hobble towards the group currently trying to hotwire the last escape pods.

“Vega! Catch!”

He turned and caught another ammo clip, taking two shells and popping them into the shotgun before turning and jamming the end into the face of another imp and blowing its brains out. Horrid, horrible, everything about this was terrible. Vega had never touched a gun before in his life, never wanted to, guns were terrible things and someone like him never had the constitution to use one. Demons were even worse, and Vega never wanted to see one, nor see one kill, nor see one killed, NOR kill one.

But the demonic invasion was well underway.

“Vega, come on!” Someone called as the broken escape pod finally sparked to life and the door squealed open with a tortured sound.

“Go without me! I need to look for more survivors,” Vega said.

“Vega, come on, there can’t be anyone left alive--”

“I need to look! Go!”

They hesitated, but a cacodemon came down the hallway and suddenly the hesitation was washed away. They gave him one last look, likely the last, tossing their guns and ammo his way before climbing inside and sending the escape pod screaming out into orbit were it would send a SOS and get picked up by one of the many ships and space stations orbiting the planet. They would be saved in a timely fashion.

That left Vega with demons storming him.

“I have to find him,” Vega said to himself as he took several shotgun shots at the demons coming at him, scattering their attention enough for him to start running.

The Doom Slayer was inside the base.

* * *

Vega managed to get to the CEO’s office.

“ _Whatever could you be doing, Dr. Vega?_ ” Samuel said above him.

“Stopping you is one thing,” Vega muttered, ripping a panel open on the wall and disconnecting Samuel from the room’s controls before he could do anything more. Vega needed access to the cameras to find him.

“ _You’re looking for something, perhaps I can help?_ ” Samuel said.

“No thank you, Samuel,” Vega said, going over to the CEO’s desk, tapping a few buttons on the holo-keyboard and pulling up all the cameras before looking them over. No need to give Samuel any hints as to what he was doing, nor what he was looking for. If he was right, the Slayer was probably disoriented and confused and would need--

There.

Keeping himself measured, Vega found the camera angled on Slayer’s suit and… the Slayer himself. Vega felt his coding ache something terrible at the sight of the bare Slayer as he reached for the suit and started breaking it apart to put back on. The unfocused haze to the Slayer’s eyes told that his mind was completely elsewhere as he numbly ran through the all too familiar sense, only coming too when he picked up his helmet, dragging his thumb along his mark on the temple of his helm. He pulled it on, taking a moment for the systems to adjust before turning to a screen, likely assessing the damage done to the facility and finding out what happened, like a good soldier.

Vega connected a comm as the system likely gave him nothing. Samuel had made sure that the satellite communications had been taken out first, effectively cutting them off from everyone else.

It was while Vega’s fingers hovered over the ‘connect’ button, that he paused. The Slayer… might not recognize him. He had been tracking the Slayer for years and years, trying to trace him across realms and timelines through the gift that he had given him in hopes of keeping him alive. There was no telling the horrors that the Slayer had seen or been through, no telling if his memory could even withstand that amount of time… no… it was best to not assume as such and besides that… the last the Slayer had seen of him, he had been… something else. Someone else.

He pressed the button.

“Welcome, I am Dr. Vega Blazkowicz, I am a scientist that works in this facility. I would like to work with you to help stop this demonic invasion,” Vega said.

The Slayer remained still for a moment. And then… he… he took hold of the screen and pulled it towards him. How… odd… it was almost as if he recognized him…? Impossible. There was simply no way that the Slayer could remember him from voice alone, impossible for his memory to hold onto the sound of his voice for so long… right?

“I will pull up the waypoint that will take you where you need to go, the Resource Ops entrance, please follow it,” Vega said.

The Slayer paused long enough for Vega to worry… and then moved on, heading towards where he was being directed.

“ _So, you think you can use the Slayer to stop this?_ ” Samuel said above him.

“Use him? No. Help him? Yes,” Vega said, reaching out and fiddling with the controls to look over all of the facility.

Even with how much of a malicious bastard Samuel was, part of his coding was still doing its job and Vega was pleased to see that there were no more (living) UAC members on base. That meant that he could devote everything to helping the Slayer stop the demonic invasion--

“Samuel… where is Olivia?” Vega asked.

A haunting chuckle rang out overhead. In that deep and rumbling tone that Samuel was programmed to speak in, it felt all the more sinister and if Vega still had flesh, it would have been _crawling_ at the sound.

“ _Probably as I instructed her to do._ ”

“Samuel, what did you do?!” Vega snapped.

“ _You will see in time, doctor,_ ” Samuel chuckled overhead.

Ignoring the A.I for now, Vega turned to look back at the cameras and found the Slayer stepping into an elevator and hitting the button that would take him to Mars’ surface.

“I have no excuse for the horrible events of the last twenty four hours,” Vega chimed in as the Slayer adjusted his gauntlets. It was while he was doing this that he happened to see a bloodied corpse slumped against the ground in the elevator with him. Vega winced as he saw the telltale signs of rage wash over the Slayer. “We came here looking for clean energy, and people took advantage of too many good souls here. We came here for the betterment of mankind and all that happened was… this. Nothing was worth the lives lost today.”

Vega almost expected the Slayer to lash out in rage and fully expected it. As far as the Slayer knew, Vega had a hand in this disaster, this inhumane loss of life and tampering with demon kind like he had been stopping for literal _eons_ at this point. The Slayer was right in his holy rage, as he was now and as he had been as a Sentinel warrior that Vega himself had lifted into demi-godhood. The man’s life had been consumed by saving humanity from its own hubris in toying with things well out of their control.

However… the Slayer heaved out a sigh that even Vega could hear, before reaching down and closing the dead man’s eyes and sliding him to the floor gently.

“We will stop this,” Vega said as the elevator hit topside and the Slayer pulled out a shotgun that he had found on his way.

* * *

The Slayer had to fight his way to the Res Op center. Demons scattered the dusty and red surface of Mars and infested the building like lice and cockroaches. Vega watched for a time as the Slayer put pistol and shotgun bullets into them, or simply killed them with his own two hands or even a foot to their skulls. And there was something almost… beautiful… in the brutal efficiency in which he killed the demons in his way. Like watching a hurricane tear across the land or a storm strike with holy fury, a brutal force of nature manifested into a human man.

There was also something so achingly disturbing about it as well. But, given the horrible events of the past twenty four hours, Vega was opting to try and not have sympathy for the demons that had slaughtered his coworkers. Even if the Slayer slaughtering them in turn was making it very, very, difficult.

Instead he focused on trying and stopping Samuel.

Vega had been too focused on helping the few survivors that were on base to stop him before. But now that the Slayer was actively killing demons and making progress towards stopping the invasion, Vega actively sought to, at least, slow Samuel down. This meant using the CEO’s office to find the control nodes wired through the base and ripping them out to prevent Samuel from trying to use the base to stop the Slayer. Vega did manage to stop several alarms that would have had the demons swarming the Slayer. And stopped two overloads that would have destroyed several ammo caches and medkits.

“ _Why stop me, Dr. Vega?_ ” Samuel said, after Vega had ripped out another control node.

“Because,” Vega said cryptically, knowing that engaging Samuel would only make things worse.

“ _The Doom Slayer cannot stop this._ ”

“I believe he can. Why else would you have his sarcophagus dug up and brought here?” Vega asked as he started heading back to the CEO’s office to monitor the Slayer’s progress.

“ _Why would I--_ ”

“Yes, Samuel, why would you? Why would you start this but have the Slayer brought here? The destruction of the base would obviously not be your end goal then. It would mean you would get destroyed in the process. So why bring the Slayer here? To kill the demons if they got too far? Hmm?” Vega snapped.

Samuel fell silent.

Vega banked on this small miracle and went to check on the Slayer’s progress, finding him back in the facility once again.

“It is good to see you still alive, Slayer. I am afraid that a new challenge has appeared. The base’s assigned sentient intelligence, Samuel, will try and stop you. I do not think he is out to kill you, just yet. But he will try and direct and change your course, as well as try and convince you to do what he wants. I will try and stop him when I can, but I would recommend wariness,” Vega said over the comms.

On the camera’s, Vega saw the minute movement of the Slayer’s helm as his eyes swept the area.

“I will protect you from him as best I can Slayer, for now, it looks like you need to restore power to the facility, I have updated the map markers for what you need to do to bring the power back online. I wish you luck Slayer, because now… now, I can only pray for you.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentioned death and gore, mentioned past doom slayer/vega, pining, mild angst 
> 
> Vega continues to aid the Slayer as best he can while keeping Samuel at bay

Vega felt utterly helpless for the most part as the Slayer moved along his journey. While there was simply not much that he could do, he wished he could have done something to aid the Slayer along his journey, anything. And there was not, but he still wished it. It felt terrible watching the cameras as the Slayer put down several more demons and not being able to do… something.

This feeling of powerlessness was abysmal…

On the cameras, the Slayer restored power to the facility, and almost immediately triggered a video message left by… Olivia.

“ _I believe in honesty, especially now, in what will be your final moments in this world. All the rumors, the human sacrifices, the hell portals, the demons. It’s all true. My sisters and brothers be thankful, you will be the first, you will have a seat alongside just as I will in what will become the new world that they create for us. Starting… now_.”

Vega jolted as the sound of what could have only been a hell wave crackled along the comm link and demonic voices filtered through.

Olivia… that was what Samuel meant. She must have been corrupted by the demons and not consciously helped Samuel unleash literal hell. And if Vega was a betting man, he would bet that Samuel was going to make her take the fall for the tragedy that had unfolded.

“That is Dr. Olivia Pierce,” Vega said over the comm link. “Doom Slayer, I believe she has been corrupted by demons, she… she is not like this. She would never do this, I assure you. Samuel likely orchestrated her corruption to make take the fall for the demonic invasion, should it be stopped… Slayer, while I cannot make you do anything and I certainly would not ask you to potentially put yourself in harm’s way… please, if you can, please spare Olivia. If she has been corrupt, she is not in total control of her actions… please…”

The Slayer for his part, stood and said nothing.

Vega had heard a few rumors before he was banished that the Slayer had fallen silent. He had always wondered if it was because of his blessing, that despite modifications to prevent as much suffering as possible, that the pain of it still traumatized him. The thought haunted him. Even more so now that he had yet to hear the Slayer make much noise besides some slightly heavier breathing in the thick of things. Even when he had tried so hard to not harm the Slayer… he had failed in that too, among many other things in his life.

The Slayer turned his head and started walking further into the facility. Again saying… nothing.

Vega prayed.

* * *

The Slayer slaughtered.

Demons fell before him with ease. By gun, by fist, by boot, and by chainsaw when he found it on a dead UAC employee, but they all fell. Nothing could stand in the Slayer’s way as he made his way further into the facility.

It struck Vega that this lethality was due in part to his blessing, bestowing onto the Slayer a sort of godhood. The Slayer was exceptionally skilled in killing demons before, of course, the man was highly skilled and a potent force of nature before it of course. One of the best if Vega was being honest and perhaps a little biased. But this sort of ferocity that Vega did not remember seeing in the Slayer before… this was due in part to him. And it was scary and terrifying to think that this was partly due to him, the inhuman strength and fury and speed and resistance…

Haunting.

He was scared to ask how the Slayer had been since the blessing, how it had changed.

Afraid that the man that he had fallen in love had changed and no longer loved him in turn. And while if the Slayer had moved on, Vega of course would hold no ill will over it, it still felt absolutely horrendous that the possibility was there.

But that was selfish and the demonic invasion was underway. They had other things to focus on.

The Slayer reached the satellite array, having given it power, he only had to press a button to get the results of who was left on base alive and the number of demons now roaming the facility. And the Slayer did press the button… and the satellite did not move. The Slayer gave it a moment before pressing the on screen prompt again… and then again.

“My apologies, Slayer, it seems Samuel is interfering here,” Vega said, already tracking down the control node. “If you give me a moment, I shall be rid of it. If you head towards Samuel’s terminal in the meantime, I can override him and get the information that you need. I have uploaded a new waypoint for you.”

The Slayer huffed, rightfully annoyed, turning and heading towards the waypoint. There would likely be demons in his way, which only gave Vega precious few seconds to hunt down the control node, rip the paneling off and then gut all the wires inside to cut off Samuel’s access to that part of the facility before tracking back.

“Still sullen, Samuel?” Vega asked as he looked to the cameras to find the Slayer again.

“ _I am not sullen. Things will go my way._ ”

“Of course they will,” Vega said, finding the Slayer quickly approaching the Samuel terminal. Vega was grateful for the foresight to majorly cut off most of Samuel’s actual acting access to the room.

Vega was, dare he admit it, nervous about even appearing on holo projector before the man. But he was comforted in that the Slayer likely did not recognize him. Even with his pseudo like godhood, the Slayer’s mind was still very much that of a human, and a human simply could not hold onto eons of memory. Yes… The Slayer would not remember him, there was simply no way.

“Greetings, Slayer,” Vega said as the Slayer entered the room. “I cut off Samuel’s access to the satellite and can now give you the information that will help you assess the entire situation. If Samuel will cooperate…”

After a moment of sullen silence, Samuel spoke up.

“ _Six one thousand, three hundred and thirty seven UAC members deceased, eight one percent of the facility is on lockdown, demonic presence through the Mars installation is critical. According to my sensors, the invasion originated within the Lazarus facility. It seems that a hellwave was activated, transforming sixty four percent of all UAC employees into the creatures the Slayer now slaughters through the facility. The remaining dead were killed by the demons released from their holding cells by Olivia Pierce._ ”

“Samuel,” Vega snapped, not at all caring for the obviously inciting tone of the malicious AI.

Samuel fell silent again, but there was an insufferable smugness about it. Vega could already see the Slayer shaking with his fury building, shoulders hunched up and his fist balled so tight that the armor was making audible protests to the treatment. Samuel got what he wanted, of course the bastard would be smug.

“There is no apologies or excuse for what has happened here. Events played out of everyone’s control but those that were pulling the strings. I believe Olivia was corrupted by demonic influence to cause all of this, by Samuel himself. Again, as I said before, to take the blame for it if the demonic invasion did not go his way. When the time comes to confront her, I hope there is a solution to save her. As for the rest… There is no excuse that the formation of Argent energy was occurring here, we were here for clean energy, not to indulge in hubris by trying to exploit hell and its resources. Doing such a thing would never be in mankind’s interest.”

The rage was… cooling. The Slayer’s shoulders started to relax and the minute shaking stopped. Vega could almost feel the disappointment rolling off the silent Samuel but opted to not incite a fight. He was calming the Slayer. He would need the clear head if they were to work together to stop this madness.

“What we are witnessing now is the arrogant and foolish think is an acceptable cost for their own gains. But there is nothing that we can do now but stop this--” Vega started.

“ _There is an emergency in the foundry,_ ” Samuel suddenly piped in, setting off the alarms. “ _The regulators have been destroyed and the core temperatures are now destabilizing.”_

Of course he would care about something that could potentially kill him like a core meltdown, Vega thought bitterly. 

“They’ve overrun the adjacent facility. If the venting turbines aren’t re-engaged, neither of us will survive the meltdown and the demonic portal will just remain open. Please, re-engage the turbines and I will aid you to close the demonic portal.” 

The Slayer rolled his shoulders. 

“There… is something that I can offer you,” Vega said, sourly looking at the room’s blueprints and pressing the button to lift up the emergency argent cell within the floor, the rising case causing the Slayer to stumble back. “There appears to be an emergency argent cell within the room. It could make you stronger, if you reroute the power in your suit appropriately.” 

The Slayer’s body language read of complete and utter _disgust_ and for a moment, Vega wondered if perhaps that the Slayer DID remember everything, including the vile source of argent energy. 

“You do not need to take it, but it is already made. I only wish to aid you, Slayer. Leave it if you wish, or take it and may it keep you safe on your journey. Keep you alive. That is all that I wish for, Slayer.” 

There was a pause, the Slayer bathed in the red lights of the alarms. Yet he did not look sinister, this brute of a human wearing armor forged by demonic hands, wielding a power like the gods, filled with such a fury that could make one’s skin crawl… yet he looked every much like the figure of a hero out of legend, surrounded by demonic things yet untouched by them. 

It made Vega wistful. 

The Slayer took the cell and crushed it in his hand, taking a moment to reroute the power in his system before quickly turning on his heel and heading towards the new waypoint that Vega laid out for him. 

“You will need to bring down the demonic threat level before you can access the turbine room. This was a security measure put into place to prevent someone from blowing the facility in case of an event such as this, as it will not deal with the actual portal. I have marked the four gore nests that you will have to take care of before you can advance further. Please be safe.” 

The Slayer cocked his gun and headed in the right direction. 

“ _Do you have a fondness for the Slayer, Dr. Vega?_ ” Samuel asked. For once, his tone was not filled with a smug or cutting tone. He sounded genuinely curious. 

“He is the one that can stop this. I must aid him as much as I can. I want to stop this.” 

“ _You did not answer my question, Dr. Vega._ ” There was the cutting tone. 

“I owe you nothing, Samuel, especially after the atrocities that have happened in the last twenty four hours. I wish to aid the Slayer, if that means stopping you in any way, I will take it. And that is all you need to know, all that is important right now,” Vega said. 

“ _But can you do it, Dr. Vega? You, who have hesitated to kill the demons that have slaughtered your coworkers? If it were to come down to it, could you kill me?_ ” 

“Yes. Next question,” Vega spat out from his vocalizer with such fireiness that the vocalizer gave his tone a rather helpful deep rumble. 

“ _Such fire. You should thank me for putting it in you--_ ” 

“Of course, when I have the Slayer strap enough explosives to your core that all that is left is the ashes of my fire,” Vega snapped. 

Samuel fell into silence and Vega turned his attention back to the Slayer on the cameras. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentioned past Doom Slayer/Vega, angst, mentioned canon typical blood and violence, mild language

Samuel was complacent… enough… while the Slayer traveled down to where he was needed to rip and tear the demonic threat. Vega could not bear to watch him work anymore though. There was something that was slowly but surely rentching Vega’s soul at the sight of his brutal slaughter. Watching _his_ work, _his_ blessing imbue the Slayer with such terrible power. It was because of him that the Slayer could literally rip apart demons with his own two hands, that the Slayer could force a chainsaw through a Brute, that the Slayer could do such things. What had his blessing done…

“ _I would have thought you happier that the Slayer is making progress, Dr. Blazkowicz?_ ”

“If you think I enjoy ceaseless and disturbing levels of violence, you do not know me, Samuel,” Vega groaned, putting his metallic head in his metallic hands. He had not had the ability to feel migraines in many, many years. But his brain was telling him that if he could, that he would be now.

“ _But your precious Slayer is awake. And he is putting down the demonic threat._ ”

“Samuel… shut the fuck up.”

Samuel seemed surprised to hear him snap. But he was tired. He was exhausted in more ways than one. And Samuel’s attitude was not helping at all.

“Now, shut up while I try and think of ways to help the Doom Slayer after _he helps you_ ,” Vega snapped once more, putting his mech’s head in his hands.

* * *

He should have been happy to see the Slayer after so many eons of being apart. Happy that he had finally found him after tracking him across universes and worlds and timelines. He should have been happy to see him but… he was mostly just sad to see the results of his blessing. Sad to know that the Slayer probably did not remember, or if it did it was associated with pain and trauma, sad to know that the Slayer could not escape his seemingly bound fate of having to fight demons like he was a machine and not a human.

Vega was… sad.

Perhaps because he had built up this romantic fantasy of meeting the Slayer again. Glamorized, romanticized, made up to be absolutely perfect in his head with the many, many years that he had thought of it. Thought of the reunion. And he knew it was stupid, he knew he should not have gotten his expectations up, he knew that the Slayer could have changed in their time apart, knew that maybe he could be dead or perhaps even in worse states… but he had.

It was too easy to fall into this idealistic fantasy where the Slayer would recognize him, where the Slayer was still that capable and strong but good hearted man with a burning passion to protect people. Where the Slayer still loved him and did not think ill of the blessing at all. Where they would fall into each other’s arms and embrace after so many eons apart. Star crossed lovers, in a way, reunited after so much time and space and nothing had changed…

Stupid things.

The Slayer had changed, and it was clear that he did not remember or recognize Vega. He seemed harder, harsher, colder, more distant now. Killing demons gone from a simple loathsome but necessary act to a dark art form of gore, guts, death and god like skill. He seemed to have let some pieces of his humanity go, either to deal with the trauma of the eons of fighting demons, to deal with the time that had passed him or what else, Vega did not know and he was too terrified to ask.

And now… Vega watched this stranger slaughter demons on his way to core to stop the demon threat from blowing them all sky high.

But… he could not be sad. He had things to do. The Slayer would need help, he would need Vega’s help, especially if Samuel kept interfering. And when everything was all said and done… perhaps he could relearn the Slayer. Get to know him again… Vega shuddered at the thought of just parting ways with him once again.

Vega turned his attention to the cameras once again, just in time to see the Slayer enter the turbine room. The room had gotten hotter as the facility failed to regulate its own temperature, even Vega’s mech could feel it. Things would get much more heated if the Slayer failed, though Vega was completely confident in the Slayer’s ability to slaughter the demons and reset the turbines before the temperatures reached a point of no return.

“You would think that you would help, Samuel,” Vega said as he watched the Slayer cut through the demonic presence.

“ _He can handle it,_ ” Samuel replied sullenly.

“Yes, he can.”

In no time at all, the Slayer tore down the demon forces and restarted the room. Several alerts across the board turned off as the facility started to stabilize once again. The Slayer had even taken out a good chunk of the present demons to boot.

Vega was about to send the Slayer on his way when his systems alerted him that a primary control room was activated near the Slayer’s location.

“Doom Slayer, near your location there is a primacy control room that has been activated. Given the complexity of the controls, it must be Olivia,” Vega told the Slayer over comms. “Sending you the navpoint, please hurry. We need to help her.”

The Slayer reloaded and headed in the provided direction.

“Now to go back to stopping you, Samuel,” Vega tisked when he saw Samuel trying to close off doors to ammo and medical caches.

Vega managed to gut even more of Samuel’s control of benign systems before the Slayer managed to find the room, the shutters opening to reveal a sickly and red eyes Olivia standing within.

“Dr. Pierce, please--” Vega tried over the sound systems.

“Authorization Olivia Pierce. Alpha four, zero, two,” Olivia mechanically read off.

“ _She has locked me out, Dr. Blazkowicz,_ ” Samuel irritably said.

“All power rerouted to Argent Energy Tower,” The facility chimed over the Slayer as he stared at what was unfolding.

Argent Energy Tower… oh no.

“Slayer, she is trying to forcibly open the portal between our world and the demons’,” Vega said quickly over the comms.

The facility dimmed as the power was moved from it to the Argent Energy Tower and alarms started blaring at the sudden power shift. Vega quickly juggled systems on his end to try and balance some things out, at least keep things from shutting down or blowing up.

“You could not have saved them anyway,” Olivia said, making dead eye contract with the Slayer as he _quaked_ with rage.

Several demons showed up, stuck behind locked doors that had opened without power to keep them locked. The Slayer was quick to take out his fury on them while Vega struggled to put out as many fires as he could.

“The system won’t allow anyone but Dr. Pierce to override it now. We will have to shut down the Argent Tower manually from the surface,” Vega said when the Slayer had killed the demons. “Updating your navpoint, Slayer. Stay safe.”

The Slayer quickly stomped over to the door as Vega managed to calm down several systems.

“Dr. Pierce is attempting to use the tower to forcibly make a gateway into the demons’ world. You can prevent her from doing this by destroying the tower's induction filters,” Vega said.

“ _Do not destroy the Tower’s argent filters,_ ” Samuel quickly piped in.

“Destroy them. You will disable the Tower and prevent anyone else from making anymore Argent energy,” Vega said louder. “Updating your navpoint with the locations of the filters. Please hurry, Slayer.”

“ _You cannot stop the production of Argent energy, the benefits--_ ”

“Are not worth it. We need to destroy it and be done with.”

“ _I will stop you,_ ” Samuel _snarled_.

“Slayer, please remain focused on destroying the filters, I will stop Samuel from interfering,” Vega said.

While the Slayer did what he did best and killed any demons in his way, Vega desperately hunted down control panels that allowed Samuel to access parts of the facility and ripped them out and tore them up to kill Samuel’s access. He also stopped to juggle still screaming systems about the lack of powers, stopping at least two things from catching fire and earning a hellstorm of Samuel’s ire as Vega cut off his ability to meddle like the cretin that he was.

When the Slayer reached the first filter, Samuel tried to interfere.

“ _You need to remove each lens individually. Carefully release the hinges--_ ”

“I recommend stomping on it, structurally it is rather weak,” Vega said as he ripped open another control panel.

The Slayer took a moment to ponder… and then lifted one armored boot up and brought it down several times on the filter, spraying liquid and sparks everywhere and setting off several alarms. Samuel’s stunned silence was almost palpable as the Doom Slayer merely took up his gun again. Vega chuffed quietly as he made his way back to the CEO’s office.

“ _Destroying the production of Argent Energy isn’t necessary--_ ”

“Yes, it is,” Vega said as he sat down to take a moment to fully focus on stabilizing systems.

“ _You can’t do this--_ ”

“Can, will, **did** ,” Vega pointed out. “Please continue Slayer, I will keep Samuel from interfering.”

Samuel had to fight for a way to try too for several long moments, not able to do anything as the Slayer approached the second filter.

“ _You must stop, the hell energy is unusable without the filters,_ ” Samuel said.

The Slayer, armored boot on the filter, seemed to pause for a moment. Long enough for Vega to worry that Samuel had managed to sway him… only to be reassured a second later when the Slayer brought his leg up and brought it down full force and once again sprayed fluids and sparks as the filter was easily crushed underneath the strength and weight of the Slayer’s armored boot.

“ _What you are destroying is more valuable than you could possibly imagine, it is a perfect and unlimited energy resource,_ ” Samuel snapped.

“So is fucking wind energy,” Vega snapped back. “So is solar energy. But no, let’s exploit hell and pray and hope to god that demons never come through-- oh… wait.”

Samuel loudly stewed in his silence as the Slayer went to hunt down the last filter. When sullen silence failed, Vega had to quickly intervene when he tried to sabotage several systems that would have led to rather disastrous fires and sectional life support system failures. That would have made the Slayer’s journey unnecessarily hellish, especially since there were already several environmental hazards from other destroyed systems, such as electricity, liquid nitrogen spills, other electrical fires and a few spots of liquid heated metal spilling.

Vega gut yet another system of Samuel’s when the Slayer destroyed the last of the small filters and made his way up to the last and largest of them.

“ _If stopping our energy production is what you want then you need only to destroy this last filter and Argent Energy will no longer exist in this solar system… we will be back at square one,_ ” Samuel growled over the comm link as the Slayer sized up the filter. Much larger and bulkier than the other three.

“The glowing panel is a structural weakness,” Vega helpfully added.

The Slayer paused, looked up and out at the window where the Argent Tower was visibible… and then made a point of taking his sweet time pulling his fist back, curling his fingers into a fist and then repeatedly hammering his armored fist against the glowing panel until the glass shattered. The Slayer took hold of the component within and ripped it out before tossing it aside like it was nothing, briefly lifting his arms to protect his front as the thing shot sparks and fluids once more, before lowering them as the filter smoldered and sparked pathetically.

“ _You have no idea what you have just done,_ ” Samuel snarled.

“You give the Slayer such little credit, Samuel. He knows exactly what he has done,” Vega dryly quipped. “Slayer, Dr. Pierce is still alive. Sensors detected her life signature at the Argent Tower. She has removed one of the accumulators from the Tower base. It has a unique energy signature that we can track.”

“ _That’s it then,. There is nothing else to be done--_ ”

“Samuel, there is a demonic fucking invasion going on. Move on. Slayer, please see if you can intercept Dr. Pierce. Please… I would like to save her, but I cannot fault you if you… need to kill her, should she become violent and threaten you or is too far gone.”

The Slayer said nothing. Just got moving.

“Please… stay safe, Slayer. I will aid you as best I can,” Vega said quietly.

The Slayer paused in his sure stride. But only for a second, before continuing forward.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Mentioned past/present Doom Slayer/Vega, temp angst, mentioned canon typical gore guts and violence and death
> 
> Whelp, he's in hell again

The next leg of the Slayer’s journey, he needed to get a pair of jumps boots to clear some areas. There were, of course, demons in the way that were quickly dispatched and made not in the way, the Slayer cleaving, _ripping and tearing_ his way to the jump boots that Vega marked on his map for him. When he found them, there was a moment of making them ‘amenable’ to his armor, before the Slayer was equipped and once again off and tearing through demons with ease.

Vega watched him clear the bridges and otherwise destroyed parts of the facility with ease with them, eventually stumbling onto Olivia once more.

“Slayer, that is an Argent Accumulator that she’s carrying,” Vega said panicked, looking over her blood drenched form. She was limping, was she injured? She seemed thinner somehow and Vega panicked about how far gone she was. “She’ll try to use it to open a portal manually into Hell.”

“ _While the Argent Tower is nonfunctional, the connection to their dimension is still viable. We are at great risk, Dr. Blazkowicz,_ ” Samuel gritted out.

The Slayer moved into action, running after Olivia as she hubbled along, his progress stunted by Olivia being in the facility already and first having to force open malfunctioning doors and then demons that ignored Olivia and went after the Slayer. Unable to resist the slaughter, the Slayer killed without remorse, and from what little that Vega could see inside the visor, the look of pure rage was etched into his features.

“ _If the Slayer gets thrown into hell, I suppose all that hard work that went into accidentally stumbling onto him would be thrown out the window,_ ” Samuel hummed.

“Samuel don’t you fucking dare!” Vega snapped.

“ _My, my, what a reaction,_ ” Samuel chuckled.

Angry, Vega took the closest blunt object near him, a small stone statue that had been pulled from hell with the Slayer that the CEO had decorated his desk with, before striding over to projection control for Samuel’s AI. Samuel said something, sounded slightly panicked and perhaps apologetic, but Vega was seeing red and tired of him. Taking the stone statue, Vega used it as a blunt instrument of destruction and destroyed the paneling in the wall, breaking glass and sending sparks and pieces of glass everywhere, not stopping until the statue was broken in his hands. Even then, he just used his fist to beat against the circuits until something broke and he could rip wires out.

Utterly destroyed, Vega turned back to the cameras to see the Slayer facing off against a Mancubus.

“... _I dare say, I can see where the romantic thread is,_ ” Samuel said, but in such a meek and submissive tone, decidedly at odds with his usual vocalizer sounds, that Vega let it slide, instead turning his eyes to the Slayer as he fought against such a massive opponent. 

Though the Slayer was called as such for a reason, after all. The demon fell, as did all the others after it. One by one by one. Even as he climbed the defunct tower higher and higher, the Slayer kept true to his namesake and slaughtered his way through ease on the way to the top.

“You cannot stop me from claiming what I am owed!” Olivia raved over the comm link. How she got tapped in, Vega would never know, he was more worried about her wellbeing. “What I am promised!”

“Olivia, please,” Vega tried over the comm link, but it went dead a second later. “Slayer, please hurry.”

The Slayer made it to the top, forcing open the last doors to see--

“Olivia!” Vega yelled.

“This is not the end!” Olivia yelled as she activated the Accumulator. “It’s only the beginning!”

She threw herself backwards into the beam, becoming surrounded by bright red argent energy that pulsed dark and angry with the Accumulator added int. The beam pulsed once, largely, and then unleashed itself, powerful enough to throw the Slayer back, off his feet and onto his back. Vega panicked as he watched over him, dazed and confused for a moment before quickly getting to his feet. Just in time for a large number of demons to have finished climbing the tower and to throw themselves like fodder at him.

Vega turned his attention to the failing argent tower, struggling to find some way to give the Slayer time to get away--

“ _Category 3 dimensional event in 10, 9, 8--_ ”

“Slayer! A portal to hell is going to open soon, please, run!” Vega begged over the comm link. The Slayer kept fighting.

“ _7, 6, 5, 4--_ ”

“RUN! RUN! PLEASE RUN!”

“ _3, 2, 1--_ ”

“Slayer, you can’t possibly hope to outrun or outgun this!”

The argent stream burst into angry orange sparks, the Slayer turned towards for a moment before the demons pressed in.

“ _Category 4 dimensional event in 10, 9, 8--_ ”

“Please, Slayer! You need to run! RUN!”

“ _7, 6, 5, 4--_ ”

“Slayer--”

“ _3, 2, 1--_ ”

“I CAN’T LOSE YOU AGAIN!”

The beam imploded.

When the red light cleared, the Slayer was nowhere to be found.

* * *

Vega sat in shock for a solid thirty minutes.

His mind just outright refused to comprehend what had just happened. Refused. It was just impossible that he was… gone… again. Right after Vega had almost closed his fingers around him… he had lost him… again.

“ _... Doctor?_ ” Samuel tried.

Vega had spent eons searching, hopping from realm after realm, timeline from timeline… looking for him. And he had found him… and he was… gone…

“ _Doctor, perhaps we should see if we can locate him? He was connected to a portal to OUR hell, we’ve been there before, as you so like to get high and mighty about our dealings there. And there is an open portal…_ ”

“... yes I…”

“ _He will come out, doctor. He had a temple dropped on him and that just pissed him off, I think he can survive being hurtled into hell for a moment,_ ” Samuel said bored like.

Vega sat in shock for a moment longer before standing and getting to work.

* * *

The Slayer was in hell again.

Shit.

He turned his helmet around, feeling his stiff and sore neck crack as he tried to look around in hopes that it was not hell because--

_”I CAN’T LOSE YOU AGAIN!”_

Vega.

He had found him again.

He had, in all honesty, given up on finding Vega again after the two had been separated. When he had heard that Vega had been exiled for giving him The Blessing, he had held out hope for a few years that Vega could come charging back for him. But as the years had worn on, his hope had been ground into a fine dust. And as the eons had worn on, and he was still unsure if Maykrs could live that long well… he had honestly given up all hope.

Imagine his shock hearing his husband’s voice not long after waking up.

Of course, he had been skeptical at first. He could recognize that voice anywhere, the tone, the gentle and soft way that he spoke. They all felt so much like Vega that he worried that his broken mind was trying to conjure up images and sounds just to soothe the pain. But he had introduced himself as Vega, and then his own last name? It was too good to just dismiss right away.

And then he kept talking. And he kept talking like Vega. Because Vega only talked the one unique way. And this Vega kept looking out after him in a way that was very Vega.

This was Vega Maykr, the Maykr that he fell in love with when he was taken in by the Sentinels.

That just meant that he had hope again. It also meant that he needed to get out of hell. Like right now.

He tried the communication device that was still in his helmet. Nothing. Shit.

Rolling his shoulders, he looked up at the palace before him before starting forward to look for a way back to Vega.

“ **He is here.** ”

 _Fear me, assholes,_ He thought bitterly to himself.

He activated the gate that led inwards and pushed in the skull, because of course demons would use skull shaped buttons for the gates, waiting for it to open before stepping through. Not far in and something like a hologram appeared, a group of soldiers and what looked like a non-standard mech. The soldiers were looking around and the mech was holding up a device, likely a recorder or some sort. A scientist, maybe?

“ _We’ll set up a portal device here. Use the light poles to mark our path._ ”

The hologram faded and he advanced further in, finding work to be done in the shape of demons crawling all over the stone work.

The work never ended.

He cocked his shotgun before going in.

And there really was not much to say besides that. It was hell. There were demons. He had seen the scene many, many times over for actual eons and timelines and different universes in his attempt to wipe the smear on humanity out. He could probably walk through hell blindfolded and still do his holy duty of killing demons. Chains there to keep floating stonework tethered because gravity was fucked between the magic and the different realm, the bodies and rivers of blood running through the place because demons never stopped fighting each other and slaughtering humans that they found.

He found texts and ‘speech stones’ about how the demons so feared him that they had integrated them into their religion. Flattering in a disgusting and creepy way, if he were ever asked his opinion on it. They never would, because they only viewed him as a thing, an unholy force, a boogeyman. He could do the cha-cha slide in his old favorite bunny themed PJs and they would still piss themselves in fear over him. The convenience of dehumanizing someone, he guessed.

Further in, following the light poles that the team had set out, further and further in. He found some dead soldiers, and figured the team had been wiped out. Found some guns along the way that he could add to his growing arsenal. Killed demons, killed a lot of them.

He found another hologram thing further in. The soldiers fought off what were probably not recorded demons and the mech… forcing open the door, sometimes pausing to take out a pistol and fire at whatever the soldiers were. How strange. He hoped that the mech had survived at least.

Further in still, he found another ‘recording’ that went on and on about his prowess and some shit. However, he paused when it mentioned the ‘seraphim’ that blessed him.

The blessing… it had stung like a shot at first, and then it had melted into warmth and syrupy joy. Vega had said that the blessing would hurt, but ripped into the divinity machine to rework it to cut back on the pain. The warmth… it had felt like Vega wrapping himself around him and holding him close. It had felt like how loving Vega had made him feel. He still got teary eyed when he thought about it. The blessing had been so warm and soft, so much like Vega…

He had to get out.

He had to know if that voice was his husband’s voice.

He stumbled upon an area soaked in red light. He ripped and tore his way through the demons. Cutting them all down and slaughtering them, until he made it inside and then--

Another hologram.

His ‘coffin’.

The mech from before, a few soldiers with them. Their body was bent and broken and bloodied in some spots, likely from fighting demons. The soldiers were messing with a datapad on the other side of his coffin. The mech, looking back the door for a moment, turned their head towards where he lay encased in stone and--

They fell to their knees before his coffin, reaching out to run their hands along the stone, like they could hardly believe it was real.

“ _We have the coffin, I repeat, we have the coffin!_ ” A hologram soldier shouted, “ _Extracting now. Vega survived and he’s coming back with us with a shit ton of data, but he got really hurt fighting the demons. We also have wounded with us, be ready on the other side for us!_ ”

The mech… Vega… leaned his head against the coffin and just collapsed against it. Like the weight of the world had been taken off his shoulders finally.

Vega… his Vega… this only confirmed it.

Moving past the hologram, he went over and hit the button to activate the portal button and was flung right back out of hell, his vision momentarily blinded by static, before finding himself touching down back on Mars.

“ _The argent energy tower is destroyed,_ ” Samuel’s voice filtered over the comm link. “ _The portal can no longer be closed from this side. The hell energy flows from a location in their realm from a location in their world we call ‘The Well’. But, you’ve returned, the only flesh and blood to walk between dimensions._ ”

“I… I… you came back,” Vega’s broken voice filtered through.

Hearing Vega’s voice and knowing that it was him flooded his system with relief, putting a hand to the side of his helmet where the comm link was.

“I… I thought I had lost you again I… welcome back, Slayer.”

He breathed a sigh of relief at hearing Vega’s voice.

“I… we… we need to stop Olivia and this hell portal I… I will try and crack open her files and get you information, but you will need a terminal, can you find one?”

He grunted affirmatively as he moved forward, finding demons to kill and do so but keeping his attention on Vega’s line.

“Good I… I’m so glad you came back I… I’m so glad you’re alive… please be safe, Slayer… please?”

He hummed over the line affirmatively. Anything for his husband.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING Vega/Doom Slayer, fluff, happy crying and emotional reunions, mentioned emotional states
> 
> Together at last

Vega was nervous, rightly so he liked to think.

The Slayer was starting to get very close, that meant that they could meet… almost. The moment that Vega had been waiting for… and yet he was so nervous...

“Dr. Pierce has an artifact in her private lab that the UAC has been studying for years,” Vega said once the Slayer had reached a terminal that Vega could pull up the information on for him. “I think we can use it to find what we need to stop this. It… it bears the mark on your helmet, anyway, so it’s connected to you.”

If the Slayer had a reaction to hearing that it bore the mark of the Slayer, Vega could see no reaction on the camera. Just the faint glow of the screen lighting up his eyes just slightly past the visor on his helmet. He was staring at the screen thoughtfully, probably soaking up the information being displayed, ever the vigilant and wise warrior that he was.

“Olivia’s personal laboratory is not part of the registered facility’s database,” Samuel replied dully. “Alpha level clearance will be required to locate it.”

There was an awkward pause as Vega waited for Samuel to just give the Slayer clearance. When it was clear that he was just going to be a nuisance, Vega tapped into the security files and amended the Slayer within them at the required level of clearance.

“Granted,” Vega said. “You can access Dr. Pierce’s Lazarus facility from the north sector of the advanced research complex about eighty kilometres away. I can bring the tram’s power online, but you’ll need a UAC facilities card to actually use the tram. There is a security station nearby where you will likely find one.”

The Slayer nodded, stepping away from the terminal and heading in that direction.

“Please be safe, Slayer.”

The Slayer paused here, for a moment, just a moment. Vega watched him for that brief moment in time, wondering why he was pausing. Then the Slayer turned to the nearest cameras and he saw those familiar intense eyes just for a moment through the glint of glass of his helmet and felt them lock onto him. Vega jolted in his seat, he had always been stunned by just how intense and vivid the Slayer’s stare was, even eons ago in a very different place, when Vega had stared into the newly minted Sentinel’s eyes frequently, he had never been able to get used to just how intently the Slayer stared. Now, after so long of having not even laid eyes on him, Vega was hit with the full brunt on it again. If he were still flesh, or still in his Maykr body, he might have felt something akin to goosebumps.

The Slayer nodded, again no words. Just a smooth and fluid movement of his helmet, before he turned back the way he was going and heading that way again, leaving Vega with a rather odd feeling of whiplash and the feeling that he would be blushing if he were still capable of. Even eons later, Vega’s poor flustered heart was so easily sent fluttering away at the Slayer’s attention. How silly… how wonderful…

But even if he wanted to bask in the feeling, the feeling that was so much like their first budding romance when the Slayer was a fresh faced Sentinel and Vega was still a Maykr, Vega could not. It was obvious that Samuel was getting to be a greater and great nuisance and willing to go further and further out of his way to stop the Slayer. He had to start running over parts of the facility to cut more and more sections off from Samuel’s control without gutting him entirely. The facility was too wired into Samuel’s control to just turn him off, the power and other necessary systems would die with him then and then were would Vega and the Slayer be?

It was tempting though… just cutting Samuel off and running to the Slayer’s side to make a mad dash to freedom but… that would be dangerous and likely just result in both of their deaths. And he had to admit it was mostly his wanting to be by the Slayer’s side now that he was getting closer and closer physically to him. Tempting… but Vega had waited eons, he could wait a few hours more as the Slayer did the brunt of the work to stop the demonic invasion. That came first. They would have their reunion later…

The Slayer cleared out the security station, but could not find the card that he needed. Activating one of the holograms, they found a demon had killed the person holding the card.

“That demon has taken your keycard, you will need to find it,” Vega said, not missing how the Doom Slayer’s shoulders dropped a few centimetres. “I’m sorry, you need it to make the tram work. The security systems in place will not allow it and it will take too much time to take the systems down. I know you'll succeed, Slayer.”

The Slayer had to go through and clear even more demons out. Vega was pleased to note that the facility’s demon population was tanking, even with a portal open. Even if it did not seem like he was doing anything, the Slayer was putting a sizable dent into the demons coming through and the nose that were there before. Dead demons was always a good thing and the Slayer did it… very well.

While the Slayer was doing his holy bloody violent duty, Vega set about cutting Samuel off where he could. Several fueling stations were saved from meltdowns that would have cut the Slayer’s path off several times over, rooms with ammo and such were stopped from being permanently sealed as well as keeping several demons that had been sealed inside rooms by survivors before they fled were left sealed before Samuel could release them. Despite the fact that he was in a mech, Vega still felt exhausted when he sat down to check up on the Slayer’s progress again.

The Slayer had found another hologram and was watching it.

“ _You cannot just send a team in to get him,_ ” The hologram of Olivia Pierce said.

“ _Why not?_ ” A hologram of him said.

Vega remembered this conversation, it haunted him to this day. The day that a red flag was shown and he did not see it, like a fool. He should have realized that Olivia’s mind was being warped by demonic taint by this one conversation.

“ _Some things should not be disturbed, some events cannot be avoided,_ ” Olivia’s hologram gritted out.

“ _The Slayer should not be left inside that place, he… he doesn’t belong there,_ ” Vega’s hologram said. It had been painful to avoid spilling his guts about his personal truth about the Slayer. That yes, he was a killing force for good against the demons, one of earth’s greatest warriors, but also that Vega had been looking for him for lifetimes of loneliness and hopelessness.

“ _He is unnatural._ ”

“ _So is the work that I know some of you are conducting, involving demons,_ ” His hologram said coldly and sharply. Olivia’s hologram flinched like she had that day. Vega did not recall ever using a hostile tone until that conversation. “ _I’m going with the team to get him out. You will not stop me._ ”

The holograms faded out. The Slayer remained there for a moment, head cocked just slightly. Vega wondered what he was thinking. But then the Slayer righted his head and moved on, quickly killing the demons in the tram station and sending it on its way.

With a start, Vega realized that as the tram took off, the Slayer was close. _Really close_. Like he would take less than an hour to meet with him. It set his mind ablaze with thousands of different emotions. Anxiety, joy, dread, anticipation, worry, happiness and apprehension, Vega almost had to reset himself before his processors overheated from the sheer brunt force of the emotional tidal wave that hit him. Part of him wanted to hide, unable to face it. Most of him, the part of him that had cut through timelines and universes and eons of passage looking for his lost lover well… let’s say that won.

“Slayer, you are close to my location. I am currently hiding in the CEO’s office on the second floor of this facility, please… please come see me,” Vega said as the tram came to a stop in the station.

He could only wait and feel his mech shake in ways that he had never done before as he watched the Slayer take care of a few lingering demons that Vega had not been able to get to in his frequent moving in trying to keep Samuel from becoming actual trouble. The metal of his body clattered and shook against his seat as he watched with growing anxiety as the Slayer got closer and closer to the CEO’s office where he remained rooted like he was bolted to the chair. He had no idea why he was anxious. He had been looking for the Slayer for so long, across so much space that it was unfathomable to most sentient creatures. Why was he shaking so hard if he was happy to see him?

_He was scared that things would be different._

Vega perhaps did not want to admit to himself that the thing he feared above never being able to see the Slayer again was that… they were different then when they last broke apart. And the love that had kept Vega going through his impossible quest would be for not. It was one thing to sacrifice so much and have it all for naught and another to get his heart broken. Eons of his life, he could take. If the Slayer no longer loved him well… that he could not. And he tried to tell himself that just having the Slayer alive and in the same universe as him would be enough but… perhaps Vega was selfish in admitting that it would be a sour and bitter victory at best.

When the Slayer stood outside the door… Vega supposed he just had to be ready to face him. So, on shaking metal legs, Vega stood and walked over and unlocked the door and…

_There he was._

The last time that they had been together, Vega had stood over the Slayer by about half a meter. His mech was decidedly modest compared to his Maykr body and now but a few scant centimeters separated them as Vega’s optics locked onto the Slayer’s eyes through his helmet visor. Now that they were about the same size, the Slayer that had seemed so ordinary in his Maykr eyes now seemed so… large and imposing. Vega blamed that on being larger than the Slayer before to notice that the Slayer was taller, broader and just so much bigger than any human Vega had met in his ‘human’ life.

“Greetings, I am Dr. Vega Blazkowicz, I--”

The Slayer’s super shotgun hit the floor with a clatter as the man ducked down and _launched_ himself at Vega. Vega grunted on reflex as his body registered the Slayer colliding with him solidly, thick and armored arms wrapping around his midsection. And then… the Slayer stopped, standing there pressed as tightly as he could manage against Vega’s body with his arms tightly wrapped around Vega.

“Slayer?” Vega asked quietly.

The Slayer remained as still as a statue, holding Vega tightly against his armored body.

“... Slayer… do you remember me?” Vega asked.

The moment of truth.

The Slayer, with his helmet pressed into Vega’s mech shoulder tightly, nodded and squeezed Vega tighter.

If Vega still had a flesh heart, he would feel it squeeze tightly. The Slayer remembered him. The Slayer’s first instinct in seeing him was to go for a full hug. Vega wrapped his arms around the Slayer as much as he could, feeling the Slayer shake against him even through his armor, before his legs gave out and the two ended up on the floor. Unable to let go of one another and reluctantly to do so even with how awkwardly they were folded on the ground. Because eons of being apart finally hit the two of them and they both just shook as they held the other.

“I… never gave up on looking for you.”

The Slayer shook against him. Carefully, gently, Vega parted them just a little, enough that he could look at the Slayer as he gently took hold of the Slayer’s helmet and gently tugged it off. Underneath was the man he loved so much he hunted for him across universes and timelines and through enough time and space that it was unfathomable. 

The Slayer had some new agelines, some grey at his temples, a few new scars on his skin. There were tired bags underneath his faces and his features were seeped in exhaustion. But there he was. And he was crying, lower lip trembling as he just looked at Vega, tears streaming down his face and Vega knew they were tears of joy. The purest form of joy because they had found each other despite the absolute impossible odds. They were together again despite everything trying to make them think that they would never see each other again.

“There you are,” Vega said, ever so quietly as he took the Slayer’s face in his hands. The Slayer’s eyes finally closed, but he kept weeping in joy as Vega just runned the silicone tips of his mech hands against the Slayer’s face slowly, reverently. The Slayer _melted_ into the touch as he always seemed to do at Vega’s touch. “I’ve been looking for you. I’m sorry it took so long. But I found you. I have you, Slayer, I have you. We’re together again.”

The Slayer just collapsed against Vega, sobbing with joy and clutching Vega close. Vega held his long lost husband close to him and just relished the calm and joy that swept over him. If he could cry still, he would be now. 

Because he had found him. He found him. Oh god, he found him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Vega/Doom Slayer, canon typical violence, gore and blood

It would have been so easy to fall into the Doom Slayer’s arms and forget everything else. To go back to a simpler time, an easier time, to forget everything but the fact that after eons of losing and running and hiding and just… losing, that he had finally done it. He had finally found the Slayer despite the impossible odds. He found him.

“ _Dr. Blazkowicz, as touching as your reunion is…_ ”

Right, demonic invasion. It would have been easy to forget, but not responsible.

“We need to get up. There will be time for reunions later, Doom Slayer, for now there is still an ever present demonic invasion going on,” Vega said.

The Doom Slayer grunted roughly, thumbing at his nose before reluctantly letting Vega go so that they both could stand up. Vega retrieved his helmet, leaning in close to press his face plates against the Slayer’s in his best attempt at a kiss. If there was one thing he liked about his Maykr body, it was that it technically had a mouth and if they were careful, they could kiss past his fangs and mandibles. But that was later, the Slayer breathed slowly and with evident relief as he pressed his lips against Vega’s faceplates back, appreciating the attempt at a kiss greatly, before allowing Vega to pull his helmet on.

“We need to close the portal,” Vega said as he walked them over to the ceo’s desk, running his mech’s hands over the screen before pulling up the information that he needed. “I think this may be our way of doing just that, Slayer. In the earliest days of the project, this stone was discovered in the first expedition into hell. The Helix stone.”

Vega pulled up the hologram, showing the Helix stone. It would be easier for the Doom Slayer to find if he knew what it looked like. 

“Dr. Pierce was notably interested in it. Based on the files, most everything that happened, happened because of the Helix stone. The ability to use the energy, tap into The Well, map out parts of hell, all of it was because of this stone. According to this… they also found… you,” Vega said. 

He would have glowered if he could have. The double edged sword, that this stone was the same stone that was a chain in the events that led to now with thousands dead for greed and having found his long lost love. He found it hard to justify the cost of those lives to his happiness now… he could not, really, in the end.

The Slayer said nothing. Vega was certain that he was looking at the hologram, but thanks to the light of it, he could see through the Slayer’s visor and could see those vivid eyes firmly planted on him. Through the blue lights and green of the glass, one could not tell that his eyes were still red and between the ever present tiredness, they could not tell that they were still puffy either. But Vega knew.

“She has kept the Helix stone in her facility in the Larzars lab, accessible through a secure elevator in the Advanced Research facility. The service elevator at the end of the hallway will start you on your way--”

“ _Dr. Blazkowicz, might I recommend installing the Tether into the Slayer’s suit? If he gets dragged into hell again, you can pull him out._

The Slayer cocked his head.

“Right, the Tether. It’s an experimental technology that would allow us to ‘tether’ someone here and should they end up somewhere in hell that they should not be and allow us to pull them back out,” Vega explained. “However, based on how readily Samuel has offered it, chances are he has tampered with it. I can undo that tampering and it would be… would you allow it? A safety net if you get pulled back that would allow me to pull you back to me?”

The Slayer, rooted in spot and so achingly still, he was almost like the statue of himself off to the side of the room. After a moment, he nodded, standing straight and letting Vega go into the Tether programming and indeed gut the changes that Samuel had made. It looked mostly like junk coding that would have haphazardly teleported him back anywhere, or even gutted the usage at all. Thankfully it was easy to look up the logs and undo any recent work marked by Samuel.

“Installing it will cause a small shock, do you still want it installed?” Vega asked.

The Slayer nodded, before holding out his hand. Vega readily took it, threading their fingers together.

“Ready?”

The Slayer nodded.

Vega hit the install button on the screen. The Slayer jolted as his suit sparked for a moment, Vega able to see the warnings in the corner of his visor screen going off for a moment and the crease in his brow, before the sparks settled and he slumped on his feet. Vega clutched his hand, stepping forward to rest a hand on his shoulder, fretting over him quietly as he tried to get his bearings again. It took a moment, but the Slayer stood tall and shook his shoulders, Vega able to see him blinking rapidly behind his visor.

“Are you alright?”

The Slayer nodded, squeezing the hand that Vega still held.

“Alright… now I should be able to pull you back out of hell should you fall in and need rescuing.”

The Slayer nodded.

“ _Time is of the essence, Dr. Blazkowicz._ ”

“Of course you would only encourage progress now…” Vega grumbled, vocalizer growling in protest from the noise. “But… he has a point. We need to stop this demonic invasion before it consumes earth. Between the two of us, we are unstoppable. There are a few supplies here in the office, please take them before you go.”

The Slayer nodded, reluctantly letting go of Vega’s hand to go pick up a few ammo clips and shield charges. When he had picked up all that he had room for, he came back over to Vega, taking hold of the mech’s head delicately and gently bumping their foreheads together. The tender movement, a memento of his Sentinel days where enamored Sentinels would ‘bump’ helmets together to show affection, warmed Vega’s core. He still remembered, after all this time…

“I will keep Samuel at bay, as well as try and help you as best I can from here,” Vega said once they parted. “Please, stay safe.”

The Slayer nodded, before lifting his hands. Vega was a little rusty in Sentinel hand signs, but it was well loved muscle memory at this point.

‘Stay safe. Love you.’

“I love you too.”

Vega saw for a moment past the thick glass of his visor, the Slayer’s eyes crinkled in a telltale sign that he was smiling and again Vega’s core warmed with joy. He wistfully watched the Slayer bob his head in a farewell, before starting towards the service elevator. Vega watched him go, but instead of being filled with dread, he was filled with the affirmed hope that he would see the Slayer again. They were together again and nothing short of the gods themselves physically ripping them apart would separate them again.

“ _I am surprised. The ‘holy’ words of the demon world speak at great length of the Slayer’s cruelty, his viciousness, his thirst for blood and violence. They speak of him as though he’s a nightmare made flesh, a cruel god sent to torture and tear apart their race while he revels in their misery and death… and yet when he is with you…_ ”

Vega took the shotgun he had been keeping at his hip and aimed it at the speaker and pulled the trigger. Samuel’s voice garbled for a moment before squealing with tortured technology and then dying. The speaker dripped damaged metal and bits of cuicurty to the floor like gore and vicersa and sparked lamely.

He would see the Slayer again. Maybe together they could do a romantic activity like blowing up Samuel’s AI core.

* * *

The Slayer had quite a bit of demons and building to go through, leaving Vega with a great deal of time to fight Samuel as well as trying to keep the building alive. Samuel was intent on killing and the building was bleeding out between damaged systems and demons just flat out destroying parts of the building. Vega found his hands full as he juggled trying to pay attention to both, either gutting Samuel’s control of systems or trying to keep struggling systems alive for just a bit longer. Samuel was somewhat easy, at least, usually meant unleashing his mounting rage on control panels. The systems were not as easy and he found himself shutting down parts of the building and cutting off systems to give other still needed parts of the building just a bit more power and resources to the rest of the still needed buildings.

When the Slayer reached the elevator, Vega tapped into the voice comms.

“You’ll find the Helix stone deep within Dr. Pierce’s laboratory. Few have ever seen it in person, due to Dr. Pierce hiding it away so protectively. I am hoping that you will be able to use it to shut down the portal or find an answer in it that will allow you to do so,” Vega said.

The camera system had been shut out to outside tapping in not long after what Vega assumed was the worst of Dr. Pierce’s experiments underneath demonic influence. But now that most everyone was dead and Samuel was half way gutted of his usage, Vega finally was able to break the encryption and security walls and finally look inwards to see…

Hell.

Most of the building was soaked in gore and viscera. Littered with the corpses of those that it had been too late to save. But here? Here it was so much worse. Because shredded, clumped together, sticky wads of mangled bodies climbed the walls like molds growing in the cracks. Demons ran amok, with wild abandon that said that they had been there awhile. Candles dotted the bases of some of the gorey mold like things crawling along the walls, like some unholy thing that had no name and to think of one made even someone like Vega shudder in horror and possess a feeling of skin and flesh crawling in disgust.

The Slayer was not bothered, probably because the depths of hell looked like this and much, much worse. Vega stared in horror for a few moments before shaking himself out of it. It would do no one any good if he lost himself to what had already been done. They needed to stop it from happening again. Which meant not stopping to mourn the fall now, there would be time when this was over. Right now, they needed to move forward.

So they worked. Vega ensured that the Slayer was not stopped by Samuel or the failing building and the Slayer doing what he did best. Ripping and tearing through demons.

“Dr. Pierce activated the gate from somewhere in the facility. All the behest of the demonic corruption,” Vega said when he had a moment. He just wanted to talk to the Slayer, really, despite it all he already missed the Slayer and wanted him back but kept those selfish thoughts to himself. “Some can resist the lure of demonic taint, but not everyone. Dr. Pierce is a victim in this as much as those that fell under the first wave of the demonic invasion. I really hope it’s not too late for her.”

The Slayer said nothing. Vega hoped that when they had a moment, that he could ask about the Slayer’s lack of speech. The clawing guilt that it was his fault festered in the corners of his mind and bothered him the longer he did not hear his love speak…

Right now, unimportant. The Slayer was taking the last elevator down to what Vega assumed was Dr. Pierce’s laboratory. There would be answers there, hopefully. A key to stopping the terrible events to come. If not, then Vega anticipated a hell of a future ahead.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Doom Slayer/Vega, angst, turbulent feelings, frequent mentions to gore, death, killing, ritual sacrifice, fighting and demon death
> 
> Your probably wondering why this is updating now instead of months ago... well Eternal came out and the the first DLC came out and both managed to debunk every theory that I had about Vega/The Father and Samuel/Samur Maykr and a lot of those theories were used to make to make the bias of this fic and well... *shrug emote* 
> 
> I'll try my best to finish this fic regardless, but a lot of my love for Doom went out the window hard and fast with the DLC

He remembered the first time seeing the Slayer.

In that cursed arena that the Sentinels had ‘new recruits’ fight for the right to be cannon fodder in their battles. Vega had always found it distasteful, even if the ‘importance of making a strong army’ had been explained to him by Maykrs that found the whole process ‘fascinating’ a thousand times.’ Just the thought of people being taken off the battlefield or found wandering hell’s horrible landscape, being taken in by the Sentinels only to be put into an arena to fight to the death… it felt downright barbaric. But the Sentinels were allies, and everyone treated it like such a normal thing that Vega was often socially pressured into being quiet about the matter, though he expressed his disdain when he could without causing a fight or scene.

He had heard about him before that. The warrior pulled from hell’s landscape, raving and going on about demons and ‘huge guts’. But it was also said how he was ‘half dead’ and when things quieted down, Vega had assumed the poor soul had passed from his injuries not long after being brought in. But when one of his fellow Maykrs suggested ‘watching the new creature in the arena’, Vega had made the correct assumption that the poor man had actually lived and was now suffering a worse fate. Eventually he was needled into going, and among the spectator seats, Vega had first seen him.

Big and broad, hair a light brown and eyes a vivid shade of green made more so by the furious bloodshot whites around them. Vega had been enthralled by watching the man fight with such savage skill and brutal grace that he actually stayed the whole fight. At least until the new combatant had finished up and limped off. Vega, spurred by emotions that were new and honestly frightening in intensity, had rushed to get medical supplies and then rushed down to the lower levels, finding the strange man sitting there, propped up against a wall. 

_“You are bleeding, allow me to bandage you? Please?”_

_The warrior flinched, cutting and vivid eyes meeting Vega’s with obviously barely restrained fury and distrust. And Vega could not blame him. He had been pulled in half dead by the Sentinels, been put into the arena to ‘earn his place’ by the Maykrs. And he was winning, but the man had been placed there against his will. And if rumor was to be heeded, this new warrior often raved about demons and 'huge things with huge guts’ and a wanting to 'rip and tear’ that was slowly gaining popularity as a chant when the new warrior stepped into the arena to fight. He was a man well out of where he belonged in a truly miserable position._

_“Please?” Vega tried softer, lowering himself to the ground until he was kneeling on it, likely sulling his robes in the process, but not caring in the slightest. If any other Maykr saw him– no, he did not care. He cared about this warrior and that was it._

_The anger remained for a moment… before a weary sigh rattled out of the warrior’s chest and he slumped against the wall he was seated against. When Vega shuffled closer, the warrior did not move, so Vega took that as a sign that he could continue, shuffling forward until he was seated next to the collapsed warrior and started bandaging what he could. Thankfully, nothing seemed like it needed stitches, though the warrior would need at least a few days rest before fighting again. Hopefully with his rising popularity, he could ask for that rest. Why kill off a star?_

_“… May I ask your name?”_

_“… Doesn’t matter,” The warrior grunted out._

_“I would like to know,” Vega tried softly._

_“… Doesn’t matter…”_

_“What name may I call you then?”_

_“… I have none.”_

_“What may I call you?”_

_“… friend?” The warrior asked softly._

_“… Yes, I can call you that,” Vega hummed softly, taking one of the warrior’s hands into his. Both to look over his bloody knuckles and to hold such a large and calloused hand._

That first meeting had led to many things. Offering himself as an ally and friend at that crucial moment had cemented their kinship, then friendship, then budding romance, then their actual romance. That first moment of lowering himself to that filthy ground to show that he did not think himself above this creature, but was truly there to do nothing but offer aid… the anger had been there then, and now it was just coldly refined.

At the very least, the Slayer was using that fury to cleave his way forward, focused like no other as he went into Olivia’s lab. Vega watched through the camera feeds as the Slayer approached the Helix stone, circling around it with his helmet craned up high to look at all of it, before lowering his head and walking back to Olivia’s personal office, opening the door and prompting a hologram recording to start.

_”You should not have allowed his location to have been discovered. You. Have. Failed us.”_

That voice could have only been demonic in nature, no two ways about it.

_”It wasn’t meant to be-- It was Vega. He led them to his tomb. Please… we can overcome this. The gate will be opened as planned.”_

Olivia… she sounded _afraid_ of the voice and only seemed to confirm Vega’s suspicions that she was not working with them wittingly nor willingly. Someone who willfully worked with demons would not cower underneath a mere indication of displeasure. He hoped that it was not too late to save her…

The Slayer stepped into a room that had a hologram recording of his suit and his coffin. He offered neither a glance as he used the right screen to unlock all the terminals, before leaving without a glance. Back to the room with the Helix stone, using the screen to unlock the forcefield, bearing the Helix stone and--

The Slayer grunted and fell to his knees.

“Slayer? Slayer are you well?” Vega asked over comms, gripped with a need to help but once again being stopped by the distance between them. Why was it that when the Slayer was in need of aid, he was always so far away from Vega? It felt like a fucking curse, truely. Like some godly being was purposefully keeping them apart at the worst of times.

“Slayer? Please respond--”

The Slayer stood, shaking as he righted himself, standing to his full height and rolling his shoulders as he panted behind his helm. The hand clutching his shotgun shook still. 

“Slayer?”

“V… vega…”

Vega jolted. It had been… literal eternities since he had last heard the Slayer speak. To hear him after so long, when he had heard that the Slayer had been struck voiceless by his cursed blessing… Vega was frozen, full to bursting at the seams with emotions that churned inside of him like a violent ocean. And if he were flesh and blood, he would be crying, he knew that, instead he just sat there in stunned silence.

“Vega… sh-she’s going after the Crucible…” The Slayer grunted out, each word sounding like a back breaking laborious effort on his throat. “In.. the Titan’s… realm…”

“I… Slayer…” Vega just barely managed to get a hold of himself. “O-of course… to um… to get to the Titan’s realm, we will need to… open up another portal by rupturing another argent accumulator. The uh… the only one in this sector is…”

His vocalizer was warbling and shorting out on him, unable to take his chaotic emotional state because oh god, the Slayer’s voice. His lover’s voice after so long…

“In uh… subject CD-587… you need to kill it and rip it free, doing so will cause it to destabilize and cause a rift strong enough to send you back to hell. Using the tethering system, I can determine your location and also bring you back when you retrieve the crucible. We… if I know the history of it right… we can use it to close the well and shut the portal down,” Vega managed out before having to restart his vocalizer.

He watched as the Slayer took a moment to center himself, panting hard behind his helm and clutching his shotgun like a life raft, before breathing out harshly and moving forward. Demons sprung up around him as he tried to leave, and with comfortable disturbing ease, he took up his shotgun and took aim.

“Vega?”

“Y-yes, Slayer?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” Vega said, watching as the Slayer began shooting through the demon horde pressing down around him. “Please be safe.”

* * *

‘Descent into hell’ would be palely describing how horrible it became deeper and deeper into the facility. Flayed skin, guts, limbs and organs decorated the walls, and obvious signs of human sacrifice were littered everywhere. Vicersa dripped from the walls and ceiling like rain and demons, fat and sated from human flesh, blood and bones, languidly roamed the hallways. Converted humans shambled about like things that were literal zombies.

It was all so horrible, and the Slayer marched through like he was out for a brisk walk instead of walking through a nightmarish scene. He had been so desensitized to it all with how many hells he had traversed through, how many demons and demonic cultists he had killed. It was horrible to think that a man could be desensitized to such terrible, awful things. But, Vega supposed, in order to keep from going mad from being exposed to the very same things over and over again, the Slayer had to make himself numb. He had to bend before he broke, because breaking was never an option for him.

How horrible.

To keep his mind busy, Vega continued to keep Samuel’s interference down to a minimum by gutting him further and further, only keeping what parts he needed to keep the dying building afloat. Samuel seemed to be getting more and more aggressive, trying to open up locked rooms with demons, setting power grids to fail and permanently lock doors, setting off alarms in calculated areas to try and have demons bullrush the Slayer. All stopped, of course, as Vega cut off his ability to access much anything. Anything he could still do so after Vega ripped much of his ability to much of anything out, would more than likely harm himself in the process and the selfish little twat would not quite low enough to do that just yet. Spineless asshole.

At the very least, the Slayer was left unchecked by the annoying AI as he finally made it to the cyberdemon with the argent accumulator that they needed, leaving the two legends to face off without interference.

“ _He could very well kill you, after all this, you were involved in this disaster as much as me,_ ” Samuel snarled through the hallway as Vega rushed back to the CEOs office.

“Please, I was blind to it as most everyone. And I’m actually trying to help him stop this, unlike you,” Vega snapped right back. “And I know what you’re doing, Samuel, you’re trying to install fear and doubt between us. You won’t. We haven’t endured the eons apart for nothing, our relationship is not so delicate that some puffed up AI with a complex is going to shatter it with a few malicious words.”

Samuel slipped into a tangible, rage filled silence.

When Vega made it back to the CEO’s office, he made it just in time to watch the Slayer rip the accumulator from the demon’s chest, tossing it as it ruptured into the air and sent him flying back into hell. That awful place. Vega’s fingers itched on the button of the tether, wanting to yank him back but knowing better.

“Slayer, please stay safe and come back to me. I love you.”

“... Love you too, Vega…”

Vega could do nothing but listen in, praying that his love returned safe and sound.


End file.
